ECAC South
| Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) |
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|---|---|
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| Established | 1979 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I FCS |
| Members | 10 |
| Sports fielded | 21 (men's: 10; women's: 11) |
| Region | East Coast |
| Former names | ECAC South |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
| Commissioner | Joe D’Antonio (since 2016) |
| Website | www |
| Locations | |
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| Colonial Athletic Association Football Conference (CAA, CAA Football) |
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|---|---|
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| Established | 2007 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I FCS |
| Members | 12 |
| Sports fielded | 1 (men's: 1 (football)) |
| Region | East Coast |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
| Website | caasports.com |
| Locations | |
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The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full-time members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of five northeastern schools (all five from rival conference America East) after the turn of the 21st century, which added balance to the conference.
The CAA was founded in 1979 as the ECAC South basketball league. It was renamed the Colonial Athletic Association in 1985 when it added championships in other sports (although a number of members maintain ECAC affiliation in some sports). As of 2006, it organizes championships in 21 men's and women's sports. The addition of Northeastern University in 2005 gave the conference the NCAA minimum of six football programs needed to sponsor football. For the 2007 football season, all of the Atlantic 10 Conference's football programs joined the CAA football conference, as agreed upon in May 2005.
The CAA has expanded in recent years, following the exits of longtime members such as the United States Naval Academy, the University of Richmond, East Carolina University, and American University. In 2001, the six-member conference added four additional universities: Towson University, Drexel University, Hofstra University, and the University of Delaware. Four years later the league expanded again when Georgia State University and Northeastern University joined, further enlarging the conference footprint. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) left for the Atlantic 10 Conference in July 2012. More changes came in 2013: Old Dominion University left for Conference USA, Georgia State joined the Sun Belt Conference, and the College of Charleston joined the CAA from the Southern Conference.
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